“If I know you, you’ve had your head stuck in a book this whole time and missed lunch. Breakfast too, probably.”
“You know I’d never miss a cinnamon bun from the coffee shop.” She grinned at her. “But thanks. Otherwise, you’re right. I’m starving.”
“Anytime, Neve.”
Neve took a big bite of her sandwich and chewed, a far-off expression on her face. I bit into mine, grateful for the sustenance.
Neve swallowed. “So, you’re out of leads, but you’ve dealing with at least three curses—one on the book and the city wall, one on Grey’s memory, and one on your friends?”
Curses on everyone except me. I was grateful, but it felt weird to be the odd one out.
“The curses are linked,” Grey said. “The magic feels the same, and it’s all tied together. We need to know what the curse is. Then perhaps we can track whoever cast it.”
Neve nodded. “Sounds like you need a Curse Diviner.”
“Is that the person you mentioned earlier?” I asked. “The one who might be able to help Mac and Seraphia?”
“Yes. Fortunately for us, they don’t work at the Order. We need to lay low there.”
“Where are they?” Grey asked. “Who is it?”
“Madame Duvoir. She lives and works in The Dens.”
Grey’s face tightened. “Who does she work for?”
“The Dockside Boss,” Neve said.
“Just my luck.” Grey gave a wry smile. “First the Order, now this. Not that any of the others would be better.”
I gave him a curious look. “What am I missing?”
“The Dens are run by the criminal underground of Magic Side,” Neve said. “It’s been around forever, but it really hit its stride in the 1920s.”
“Gangsters,” I said, remembering my earlier conversation with Grey.
“Precisely.” Neve nodded. “They run a number of neighborhoods throughout Magic Side.” She gave Grey a significant look. “If I remember correctly, your boy here is on their bad side.”
The corner of Grey’s mouth quirked up in a smile. “Not always.” He looked at me. “It’s an on-again, off-again business arrangement. Currently, we’re off, which means we need to be careful on their turf when we speak to Madame Duvoir.”
“Will she talk to us if she works for a mob boss over there?” I asked.
“For the right price,” Neve said. “She’s a woman who does what she wants.”
“Why does the Order allow a bunch of old mobsters to control part of Magic Side?” I asked.
Neve shrugged. “Why does organized crime exist anywhere? Corruption, greed. They’ve got an arrangement, and we do what we can to keep everything as safe as possible. Most importantly, they make sure their goons don’t start showing up and dropping spells in Mainland Chicago.” She met Grey’s eyes. “He’d know all about the delicate dance between crime and city.”
“True enough.” Grey shrugged. “The Council of Guilds can’t stop me.”
“That’s because you own them,” I said. “And you can control their minds.”
“It’s a handy skill.”
Neve shook her head. “Well, it’s not too dissimilar here. We definitely want to avoid their goons. They don’t like me any more than they like you, and Carrow is an outsider, so she won’t be welcome either. But I can get us in by boat once it’s dark.”
“By boat?” I asked.
“The Dockside Den occupies the area around the old freighter docks, which the thugs now use for whatever they want to smuggle. The Great Lakes reach the sea, you know.”
I nodded, finally starting to get a more complete picture of Magic Side.
Neve finished her sandwich, leaving a bit of crust on her plate. “Ready to go find a boat?”
I ate the last bite of mine and stood. Grey joined us, laying a stack of bills on the table.
“It was on the house,” Neve said. “Diana sometimes feels bad for me because of how hard I work and throws me a bone.”
“Then it will be a tip.” Grey turned toward the door.
I shrugged and followed him. The gesture didn’t surprise me. He wasn’t the type to owe anyone.
But I definitely owed him.
It took Neve the rest of the afternoon to rustle up transportation, a sleek wooden speedboat we rented off an older gentleman at the local yacht club. It cost Grey a pretty penny. By the time we were ready to depart, the sun was sinking behind the horizon. Waves gently rocked the vessel as we climbed on board.
Neve took the wheel.
From the dock, the owner scowled at us. “Be careful with her,” he said.
She saluted. “You can count on me.”
He grumbled and turned away, as if he couldn’t bear to look.
“Can he count on you?” I asked.
Neve shrugged. “I’m not bad with driving. It’s the docking that’s hard.”
The old man groaned. “Just bring her in slow.”
“Will do, Cap.” Neve pulled away from the dock and looked at the dim sky. “This timing should work well enough. The moon won’t rise until a bit later, so we should have some good darkness.”
Grey stood on the other side of the boat, staring out at the lake ahead. The cool breeze swept his hair back. He looked like a movie star headed to the Venice Film Festival. I’d always liked looking at those pictures in magazines—images of far-off travel I’d never get to do.
Now I was in America, and I’d been in Romania before that. My life had taken an adventurous turn.
The breeze was cool as the boat sped over small waves. Neve directed us toward the Dockside Den, looking like an expert at the wheel.
As twilight faded, I stared out at the city. It rose tall from the shore, shining skyscrapers reaching for the sky. Lights gleamed in the windows, more and more flicking on as the hour grew later.
“It’s beautiful.” I said.
Neve nodded. “Yes, at night. And some parts during the day. This is your first time in Magic Side?”
“Yep. It’s quite different to Guild City. The people are so open with their magic. I mean, I saw a blood sorceress striding down the street. Magic radiated off her. It was clear as day what she was. You could never be openly…powerful…like that in Guild City.”
Neve shrugged. “Never been there. Heard stories, though. It doesn’t make sense to me. This is a magical city. We’re a magical people—it’s literally who we are. Why hide our powers?”
“Except you do.” The words were out of my mouth before I had time to think. Neve’s jaw tightened, and I instantly regretted it.
She was silent a moment, then she spoke, not making eye contact. “It works for me.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
There was a long, awkward silence. Grey was far enough away that the wind drowned out our conversation.
“I’m still mastering my powers.” I was trying to offer up something, but that didn’t get any result, either. She had locked up. I continued anyway, trying to smooth the moment over. “Sometimes I just sense things. About people. Objects. I wanted to join the police, be a full detective. It didn’t work out. Maybe it would have been better for me here.”
Neve gave me a sympathetic look and shrugged. “This place has its own pitfalls. I’ve been trying to make investigator for years. Haven’t managed it yet. It sounds like you have some interesting talents for it.”
“None that have helped me in Guild City. I didn’t have a lot of options, so I kinda had to strike out on my own—start my own detective agency.”
Neve gaped. “That’s amazing. Your own agency! I’m jealous. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be my own boss.”
I beamed a little at that. “Honestly, I’m making it up as I go along.”
She smiled back. “Hey, any help you need, give me a call.” She studied me for a moment, then gestured to the wheel. “Want to drive? Might as well learn some waterborne infiltration skills.”
“I’m not sure the captain would approve. I haven’t done it before.”
She stood aside. “Nonsense. Come here.”
I took her place. Beneath my palms, I felt the powerful thrum of the engines vibrating through the wheel.
Neve pointed at the controls. “Throttle up, throttle down. The wheel makes us turn to port or starboard. This button scuttles the ship, and we drown in Lake Michigan.”
“What?”
She grinned. “Just kidding. Try not to hit land. You’ll be fine—it’s a big lake.”
Handling the speedboat was exhilarating. As soon as I had got the hang of things, Neve had me punch up the engines, and we raced through the night along the dark, curving shoreline. The speedboat surged and hummed beneath my hands, begging me to go faster.
I shot a grin at Grey, then turned to Neve and shouted over the roar of the engines, “How do you know where we’re going?”
“I’ve done this before,” she yelled back.
“At night?”
“Yeah. For work.”
“So, do you go into the field a lot? Hunting down bad guys?” It reminded me of my own work.
“I wish. Primarily, I’m a researcher, so they generally keep me chained to the archives.” She grimaced.
“I’ve heard you’re very good.”
“Yeah, I’m so good I’ve been pigeonholed. They only let me out of the cage if they need me to read some ancient spell.”
“Jerks.”
Neve turned to look at me. “Totally. It’s really frustrating. I do the groundwork for a lot of cases, but I’m never part of the bust.”
I gently bit my lip. “Damn. That sucks.”
“Yeah. I have a lot of repressed sleuthing.” She grinned at me. “So what do I do? Find a healthy outlet? Noooo. I sneak a mob boss into the Order archives, then I shuttle him into the territory of another gangster. I need new hobbies.”